OK.. lets hear the strategy for the opener!

its quiet… TOOOOO quiet… so I have to make some noise!…. but if a RiverEyes shouts on the St Croix and there is no one there to hear does he make a sound? What is the sound of one cylinder running? We have met the Walleyes and they are us?….. ummmm help me out guys?!

drove by the Osceola Landing and there was a group of boats out!!!?? and about 2-3 house boats parked at the landing too??? I have heard whispers of an informal White Bass Invitational held out of the Osceola launch the weekend before the opener…. could this have been that? and if so… lets hear it… any white bass caught?

any ideas or thoughts on how good the opener on the Croix will be? will the fish be more up here and still spawning? will trolling shad raps STILL be the #1 tactic? (Im sure it will be the most used by the locals! very few seem to vertical jig, the fish dont seem to be sitting in very deep water usually….. 10 foot and less up in THIS area….. which is NOT to say you cant get them deeper…. but Ive done better shallower usually…..

well.. OK… Im done making “noise”… did anyone hear?

On Wi opener I’ll be going to my favorite secret spot on the Croix and will be using my favorite secret presentation. I’ll let you in on the bait though. Crawlers. Please make this week go by quickly!!!! Good Luck!

ahhhh yes… sounds like my statedgy!!…

Awaken at the secret time….

drive to the secret landing…

launch boat under cover of darkness….

take secret route to the secret spot……

pull out the secret weapon…

use the secret presentation…..

the results will be NO secret!!… lol

you can all print this out!!

ok… JK!….. if I had anything GOOD enough to keep secret I would be pretty happy!!……

but the real truth is I have no secrets… *sigh*

well maybe a secret handshake… but THATS a secret!!

For God’s sake don’t tell them about the handshake!!

Funny thing about St. Croix secret spots. There’s always other people there, but they don’t know it’s my secret!

oh yeah… I forgot…. its death to even HINT about the secret handshake…. ummmmm… I was just kidding!! really… I dont have a secret handshake… ummmmm I dont even have HANDS!!…. yeah…. thats the ticket….

Sorry River Eyes – I’m headed to my secret lake – not the ‘Croix. OK Horshoe Lake just north of Turtle Lake. I’ll be one of the few ‘Sconis out there amidst all of the Minnesotans. Hope the weather predictions for the coming weekend stay true if not get warmer. Good Luck to all wherever you head to. ————————————Pax

Pax, a very god friend of mine has a cabin on Echo lake right next to Horsehoe. He has seen the walleyes stacked in the creek feeding Echo from Horseshoe! Good luck and small world!

Jim W

Seeings how the topic is strategy, I’ll bow out and ask for advice! I’ll be on lakes with my dad but he’s concerned about this cooler weather…………..behavior patterns for walleyes and crappies please???

Hey Pup,

I have heard reports that crappies are starting to come into the shallows. They are between the shallows and deep winter spots right now. I have had good luck this time of year fishing sucken islands in the middle of the lake. That seems to be the best for me so far. If the lake that you fish doesn’t have a suckend island, I would head for the warmest shallow bay and start casting. I am not much of an eye fisherman unless I am on the river. Sorry no help there.

Good luck to you.

FH

Well I think I’ll start out shallow with #5 stick Raps and a Bud, then progress to a #5 Shad Rap and another Bud, then to a #7 and more Bud’s if needed. J.K.

The backup will be spinner rigs and fatties and if that fail jig and fattie Stillwater to the Zeb checkpoint. I almost never use crawlers since I seem to be the Sheep King with them! I can’t wait to see all the new “pro’s” in brand new boats. They always show up in force for the opener looking for spots. hehe

Hope the weather is decent!

Good Luck,

Ferny.

Hmmmm Ferny.. dont you have the rule no fish no beer? and its kind of an equalizer if for every fish you catch you HAVE to have a beer!!…. well…. ok…. so those are NOT my rules.. but I fished in one boat where those WERE the rules…. thankfully the boat driver did not get toooo many fish….

you know you picked the wrong boat to go out in when:

they are more concerned with how much beer they have rather than how much bait…….

they are more concerned with what CD’s bring than what lures…..

they care more about the location of the nearest licquer store than the location of the fish…..

they use all of the ice to cool the beer and leave none for the fish…..

well.. ok….. so some people would say thats the RIGHT boat….!!

but Im kind of funny… I figure I will go to the bar or even better a party to do my drinking… cuz when Im fishing IM FISHING!!!!

looks like a lot of us croix guys have new (or should I say different boats?)…… I know Pax has one, SteveO has one, Turk has one… I have one….. and my memory fails… but it seems there are more?

I plan on starting out fishing in as shallow of water as I can with spinnerbaits and shallow raps, possibly a buzzbait. Then I’ll progressively work deeper until I hook up with fish. If all else fails I’ll concede and throw out a crappie minnow out one side of the boat and a sucker minnow out the other. That’s my plans and I’m sticking to ’em.

My FTR sticker is on the inside of my transom wash area. I’ll also have my FTR hat on. Plus I’m probably the only guy with two Suzuki motors hanging off the back. Say hi and identify yourself if you see me. I’ll be between Hudson and Prescott.

4 MORE DAYS, 4 MORE DAYS, 4 MORE DAYS!!!!!!!!!!

my plans are to (1) learn the idiosyncrasies of my new rig. Holy [censored] there is a lot of reading to do! (2) get my rig in and out with making anybody wait too long. Backing in to my garage went well so I’m hopeful. (3) fish shallow water adjacent to current with slo-fall jigs and plastics.

BTW, fireflick makes some killer hair jigs with stingers. they work, trust me on that one.

Fishhunter and Pax,

Thanks for the input! I should be able to follow both suggestions and that outa cover some bases for us! Thanks again!

hey steveo…just curious…when you backed into your garage did you dammage your new rig????…lol…good luck to all..the drift around the rr bridge will be very busy, i still cant decide what im going to do. will probably stick with the croix but ive also had good luck north of the rr bridge along the rock shores just south of bayport. so many choices……..so little time…. THANKFULLY

ok… despite threats to the contrary Ive not got out fishin the river yet!! for one thing Im still getting the “new” boat set up….. and having a bit of fun with that…. (note: dont take things apart unless you pay close attention! it helps when it comes to putting them back together!!)….. so I have a hobby till saturday no doubt.. then to decide where to launch.. I will probably let the numbers of people decide for me… I dont know when the Osceola launch will fill up… but no doubt it will be early….. what to do, what to do… well there is always franconia if you dont mind walking about half a mile for parking as rigs will be parked up and down that tiny lane they dare to call a road… and using the totally unimproved thing that some call a launch which is actually just a gentle sand and gravel slope…… at least the water will be high enough for the big rigs to get in without backing totally into the water.. (it was fun watching them launch in the fall!!!)……

sounds like a couple of our fellow FTR members will be out and about up there… wonder if I should describe my rig? I KNOW it will be the only one like it on the River… it used to be Turks…. and I like unique…. its rigged up to be a fish catching machine… now if only the most vital part is up the the task…. ME…..

Now Ive been thinking all week and that makes my head hurt… and what Ive decided is to go with 3-ways and bait….. and cranks… it will allow me to keep the line close to the boat.. and work a bit deeper than the rest of the long line trollers…… and it will be a different look… these guys hammer the heck out of em with #5 shadraps… simple as that… long lines…. 8 foot or less…. whatever color they think is best…. like all things if you show the fish something different then the rest its for the best… most are using silver/black… then firetiger then perch……in that order I would say….. and the croix is almost always a green bite… but still maybe a crawdad? or black and gold…. or heck… why not a bomber in chartruese crayfish.. or a walleydiver…. anything green and a bit different….. why not?

but in the past Ive not had much luck with the cranks on opener… particularly long line… just so many boats its hard to be “precise”… therefore Ive done better jiggin…. most dont know the trick to that… Ive slowed my drift down so that I was NOT vertical but actually about a 45 downstream.. and in some of the deeper current breaks even slowly pulled a heavy jig upriver, draggin it on the bottom…. Im anxious to see what ring worms and SuperDoos might do up here… Ive not used them in the spring yet……. but last year farther down river the superdoos kicked some fin in 20-24′ using a big lift drop…..

oh well.. on Saturday it begins!…. good luck all…..

went out on the croix this pm…i guess a little scouting…even though the thermometer said 45 it was brutal!! felt more like 10. was out on pool 4 a few times already this year and wasnt near as cold! the water temp seemed to be right around 48 to 52…not much change in the past week and a half. i know alot of people are thinking walleye right now but does antone have any suggestions for white bass in the croix and when?

theres a good run of white bass that head up to the taylors falls dam… but they seem to catch most of them along the cliff faces in the dalles just below the hwy 8 bridge…..

there are bass scattered up and down the river right now…. but warmer water is better….

We all should compare notes on Monday.

thor,

about the backing, I should preface this by saying I backed it down the driveway to the garage and used the tongue jack to wheel it in. I don’t trust myself THAT much. No damage yet.

it’s amazing how easy it is to move around with that jack.

See ya on the ‘Croix.

what are you runnin’? I’ve got a black Fishawk. I’ll have the black and red FTR decal on the front.

good luck this weekend.

steveo..was just giving you a hard time!!!!!!! i knew what you meant. i will be in my old trusty 16.5 blue and grey starcraft fish/ski style boat, walk thru glass with a cabelas/in fisherman decal on drivers side glass.I will be fishing mostly the stillwater down to afton area, good luck. how does someone get a ftr/efn decal? i would love one!! i think the new online store should carry them.

We’re all out of the stickers. We need to commission a second run. Which we will be doing and we’ll be carrying them in the store. In fact, SteveO is helping us out with that project and our only hold-up is just finalizing a design and giving SteveO the go-ahead! Soon… right now we just added some EFN Gear to the store… there’ll be more, including a whole line of Columbia clothing, Columbia rain gear… with or without the EFN Logo. For less than you’ll find them elsewhere.

Good stuff ahead!

Sounds like some good ideas rivereyes. Im going to jump out in front of the pack before daylight with a little long lineing on my way to the spots. might as well try some thing while traveling. but when i get on them im going to stop and try some jigging or bottom fishing. Anchoring can be pretty productive in the right spots. I am goin to head into the back waters if the traffic gets to bad. That water was moving pretty good on thursday so the fish shouldnt spook to easy.

Im trying my new rig out tommorow also. I bought a 14′ john boat over the winter. 15 horse eve. Tryed it out on thursday and i like it on this part of the croix. I got way back into the backwaters with it. Got it stuck once Guess i need a push pole. It will be me and cody (the dog) tomorrow morning. Ma is Dropping of the boy in the afternoon. Good luck tommorow.

Columbia clothing and raingear??!! Great, can’t wait to get my hands on some of that. James, let me know when you guys are ready to pull the trigger on the decals and we can have them at your disposal very quickly. Just like everything else in the on-line store they will be manufactured out of very high quality materials and produced with state of the art printing technology.

I’ve just put the older design on my new rig and it looks pretty good. Now, if I can just figure out the blasted trolling motor……

Thanks hougie/jenn on the advice on the anchor. Showed up yesterday in time for the opener.